What I think of my life, as told to Diana

> My roomates are both very nice (and very different from each other), but
> you know how it is, your roomates aren't your hanging-out friends, unless
> they were your friends before you moved in together.
*** Actually, precisely one of my roommates, Larry, is quite awesome,
and he and I hang out all the time.

That said, he, I, and my other roommate, Julio, found ourselves down
at my favorite bar, Clydz, on thursday night. And I must say that
Julio, while he is nice on a personal level, completely cramps my
style in a bar situation. I mean, at this point I'm completely
comfortable in bars, even upscale ones like Clydz, and have even
gotten to the point of getting women's phone numbers while at bars.
But Julio's philosophy is completely different-- He's more of the
macho type, the reserved, perfected, on the attack, no chest hair,
browns, blacks, whites, and khaki's type. I mean, to the point of
being the exact opposite of me. Now, I kinda like this-- I've been
wanting a foil this good since the departure of Zach Finkelstein, and
in a way he's even better. I mean, I'm battling for the sake of my own
style against someone who still succeeds at getting laid by hot girls,
but everything he does I disapprove of, and vice versa. That's a much
better enemy than a guy who's bent on being a liberal. So it's useful,
for now... but still on thursday I was not happy in the bar because of
him.

So on we go to friday night. Last night. I went out with this Puerto
Rican girl who I've gone out with once or twice with only poor results
just for kicks. I get a kick out of her, it's true-- which is weird
because later on thursday I wound up chilling with her sister for a while
who well, sucked! But anyway, the deal is that we enjoyed a bit of L
on a wooden bench around town somewhere, and then walked through the hospital's
emergency room to get to this hole-in-the-wall bar, McCormicks. Yes,
5$ pitchers of PBR in this place. And between me and this 120 lb.
girl, 3 pitchers were consumed. I was completely completely trashed.
But I was so happy-- I haven't enjoyed a beer that much in so long. So
of course I talked garbage with my neighbors. I swear I said the
weirdest things to these people. But still-- I came out with
sufficiently mature and intellectual shit, just at the point where you
can be like "eh" or respond with as creative a response as you'd like.
I got a little of both. I seriously had a blast.

Then tonight, I went to a grad student party out in the town that's
next to my town. This town has no bars, but a surprising number of
grad students. Anyway, the party was relatively low-key. Something
which I imagined was the case b/c the party was supposed to be more
adult. But now let's see-- First off, I was the only American. This is
a problem. There were other native English speakers-- first an Irish
guy, who was quite cool, and a Canadian guy from Toronto, who, as
expected, was quite adamant in imposing the fact that he was not
American. The point is this-- the low-keyness of this party, despite
its intentions, wound up making this party AS BORING AS HELL! It
actually took me a while to notice the fact that I was really bored.
But like, after the 3 interesting Turks left the party, I realized
that no one was saying anything interesting! No one told a joke, or
talked about anything intellectual, or told an interesting story. It
was like this huge clique in which people were more concerned about
not doing the wrong thing than doing the right thing. And what's to
boot, I was probably the youngest person there. Usually these events
have people ages 22-32 or so. But I would hate to think that in ten
years I'm going to put up with the same cliches and talking for
effect.

Honestly, it's so easy to come up with random shit to say! And based
on a tiny bit of emirical knowledge, I think that smart people, with a
sense of humor, really want to hear something new while they're out. I
mean, if now, it's not really worth my time! And that's at age 22.
Could you imagine in 5 or 10 years?

So as the only American in the crowd, I caught some of the same slack
I always do. I talked to this Spanish girl for a while, thinking she
was smart (and cute, in fact). The motif of the bulk of our
conversation was-- come up with a completely random question to ask.
See- what an idea! And it came up so naturally. And yet, in the middle
of this little game, she managed to the the completely trite line:
"how can you go off to the army at 18 but not be able to drink until
you're 21" it's like-- thanks. I've never heard that. It'll really
change my thinking-- maybe I'll ponder that now!

That's not what conversations are. They're not you reciting practiced
speeches or practiced theses about certain popular topics. They're
using the response of the other person to actually have a new thought
yourself. And you know, that's what flirting is too. Even if a girl is
beautiful (like you), I would hate to sit there about spout lines
that's I've practiced in the shower for four years at her and hope
that she'd think I was cool because of it.

Seriously, I would say that I've got to move to the city. And soon.
But, my times in these bars have said otherwise. I mean, a piece of
shit bar like McCormicks and I had a much more fun and intellectual
time! The point of a party is to invite interesting people. I guess
that philosophy failed. No, the bars are good. I'll keep going to
them. Every thursday and friday.